Ebola Patient in Texas Is Not Allowed Any Visitors

Thomas Eric Duncan remains in serious condition at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, kept under close watch by law enforcement officials. He’s not allowed any visitors, but is communicating with family and friends via phone.

In a news conference on Thursday, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said CDC-trained health officials in Monrovia, Liberia, took Duncan’s temperature before he boarded a plane on Sept. 19 to begin his journey to the United States. As part of the screening process to prevent the spread of Ebola into this country, passengers’ temperatures are taken and those with fevers are pulled off the flight. Duncan’s temperature, according to Frieden, was 97.3 (or 36.3C) — normal.

Frieden said more than a dozen people from the countries most affected by Ebola were prevented from boarding flights to the U.S. in September. Duncan did not develop fever and symptoms until four days after he arrived in Dallas.

The four people in the apartment where he stayed are now under quarantine, prevented from leaving their home by a law enforcement officer stationed outside the complex. If any of the individuals violate the order, a formal court order will be issued. None of the people are symptomatic, but, said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, he “had concern about our ability to be confident that monitoring was going to take place the way we needed it to take place.” People who might have had contact with Duncan are being monitored with twice daily temperature checks and, he said, without elaborating on the reasons, “we felt this [quarantine order] was needed.”

Food is being delivered to the four people in the apartment and Lakey said a cleaning service had been found to thoroughly clean the residence as well. Health officials visited the apartment when Duncan was admitted to the hospital, and helped the residents bag Duncan’s belongings, along with trash and towels that he used. In an interview with Anderson Cooper 360° due to air Thursday evening, however, Duncan’s partner, Louise, with whom he stayed and is one of those quarantined, said the sheets he used were still on the bed. She and the other four people in the apartment were also instructed about how to decontaminate areas that Duncan might have touched, until more thorough cleaning could be done.

For now, Lakey said, “I have no intention to put other individuals under a control [quarantine] order.” Together with the CDC, the Texas health department is monitoring 100 people with daily temperature checks; most are unlikely to be at high risk of developing Ebola, and only about a dozen had direct contact with Duncan. The state is also investigating how Duncan could have been sent home after his first visit to hospital, when he had a fever and told the nurse that he had recently arrived from Liberia.

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